Friday, July 30, 2010

Well, Sarah, it’s been hard to figure out which right-wing crazies were the most deserving of, um, refudiation this week, hasn’t it?We had, for example, disgraced but “not racist” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich doubling down on the anti-Muslim rhetoric:

Newt Gingrich went on Fox last night [July 27] to peddle more of his hateful, vile garbage regarding the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” which is not at ground zero and is not a major mosque, but an Islamic community center.

“The idea of a 13-story building set up by a group many of whom, frankly, are very hostile to our civilization — and I’m talking now about the people who organized this, many of whom are apologists for sharia, which is a form of law that I think we cannot allow in this country, period,” Gingrich said.

Frankly, the more he talks the more I’m convinced Newt Gingrich is “hostile to our civilization” … but I digress. Newt wasn’t the only one getting his crazy on this week.

Because (and more than a little ironically) while Newt was wetting the bed over fears of creeping Sharia law in New York City, the odious “National Organization for Marriage” was dancing around its own Leviticus-fueled hate mongering:

The National Organization for Marriage brought its antigay “One Man, One Woman” bus tour to Indianapolis on Monday, and the news from the Hoosier State is that it was something of a fail. Only about 40 wingnuts showed up, and the LGBT supporters outnumbered them by over 200. So that’s a bit of good news for you to savor, since it’s only downhill from here.

…

Meet Larry Adams:

Larry is an ardent NOM supporter and a believer in “traditional” marriage. And he apparently represents Cross Bearer Ministry in Indianapolis.

This is how Larry feels about gay people:

Ugh. “Despicable” doesn’t quite do justice to Mr. Adam’s brand of crazy. And, according to Freedom to Marry, NOM has yet to distance itself from Adams’ hateful message despite a week of non-stop criticism. Maybe NOM is “not advocating” a Leviticus-style pogrom against gays and lesbians the same way the Tea Party “isn’t” racist …

But wait. There’s more.Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, some low-life cretins publish what they call “Tea Party Comix” – including full-on, KKK-style racist caricatures of Pres. Obama and disgusting 1920s-ish faux-black argot that could’ve come straight out of “Birth of a Nation.”I won’t quote any of the existing “Tea Party Comix” editions, because, frankly, they make me want to chuck my laptop out the window; but suffice it to say they’re so over the top that they literally make you question your understanding of Poe’s Law.If you really have to see more, Rachel Maddow’s blog has the grisly details.

So, what can cap off a week of crazy that brought us more of Newt Gingrich’s sharia-dementia, a gay-bashing Christianist openly embracing lynching at a NOM-sponsored event, and racist cartoon images of the Commander in Chief?

Let’s get one thing straight, Diane Serafin told me this afternoon -- the people (and their dogs) protesting a planned mosque in Temecula, California tomorrow are not bigots. It’s not Muslims per se that they have a problem with – it’s the fact that Imams are slowly infiltrating American society, hoping to force Sharia law on us all.

Muslim construction projects have been the subject of public protests nationwide these days (as we’ve reported), but Serafin’s demonstration is different from all the rest. She’s calling on people to bring their dogs and join in song tomorrow afternoon because, she told me, Muslims just hate dogs and songs. Of course, Muslim antipathy toward canines isn’t their worst offense, she told me.

“They hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate women, they hate dogs,” Serafin said. “[The idea of the new mosque] scares the daylights out of me.”

Well, Ms. Serafin (with apologies to Mick and Keith), sometimes the sunshine bores the daylights outa me, but we all have our problems.The thing is, you can’t really say you’re not prejudiced and then go around making sweeping generalizations about how “they” feel about Jewish folks and Christians and dogs and so forth.

And dogs?! Seriously – you’re encouraging people to bring dogs to a protest because you think Muslims are afraid of them?That’s like Bull Connor meets Gitmo, you sick, sick puppy.

Okay, so, the question remains, with so many examples of right-wing nutty goodness this week, I wonder if our favorite ex-Governor can spare a moment from her busy Tweeting (or camping) schedule to “refudiate” just one of ’em.Really, Sarah, just pick one example of over-the-top bigoted right-wing nonsense – just one – and go all maverick-y on it.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

It seems like Chairman Roupas, needs to be forced out as well. Not only is the alleged sexual misconduct bad so is the attack on the whistleblower.

From Huffington Post ChicagoJeremy Rose Resigns: Cook County GOP Official Leaves Amid Growing Scandal-snip-Jeremy Rose, the executive director of the Cook County GOP, resigned Tuesday night after word spread of a past allegation of sexual misconduct. According to documents obtained by Huffington Post Chicago, his boss -- Cook County GOP chairman Lee Roupas -- has known about the allegations for over a year, during which time he hired and promoted Rose. And when a whistleblower came forward about the complaint, Roupas organized a concerted effort to remove that person from her elected position within the party.-snip-

According to many sources, including Lee Roupas in his interview, tensions between the Chicago Republican Party (CRP) and the Cook County Republican Party (CCRP) have long run high. In order to address those tensions before an important election, Roupas tried to organize a meeting early this summer between himself and Jeremy Rose from the county, and Steve Boulton and Eloise Gerson from the city.

Gerson, a Jewish woman who immigrated to the U.S. from Peru, rose through the ranks to become the head of the Chicago Republican Party in April of 2008. When Roupas reached out to meet with her, she encouraged Boulton, her general counsel, to join her in doing so.

But in a two-page letter sent on June 3, 2010, Boulton refused his boss's request. He told Gerson that he was wary of Rose's tactics, and mentioned the allegations made against Rose by the woman from the Young Republicans.-snip-

Frustrated with his failure to oust Gerson, Roupas was allegedly overheard in an angry rant after the meeting, calling Gerson "boss b**ch." And, despite objections by many committeemen that the new post appeared to undermine Gerson's authority, Roupas announced the appointment of a Chicago Chair of the CCRP in an email on July 1.-snip-

Sunday, July 25, 2010

My mother is a Durkin and her family comes from the Land of Heart’s Desire, County Sligo in Connacht on the northwest coast of Ireland, where William Butler Yeats spent much of his youth.In other words, the Moms is Irish. For my part, I’m a mutt; but being part Irish and growing up in the Chicago area within dead-cat-swinging distance of literally hundreds of thousands of Irish Catholics (which is to say, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one), it was hard not to identify with them.

Consequently, I grew up with the idea that all thirty-two counties of my mother’s ancestral homeland should someday be one nation; that after 800 years or so of British oppression, it was time for Her Majesty’s Armed Forces to head back across the Irish Sea where they’d come from and to leave Ireland to the Irish. That’s most likely what you thought if you were Irish Catholic in Chicago in the 1960s and ’70s. Even if you were only part Irish.

But, so, anyway, this business with Sarah Palin and the proposed “mosque” in Lower Manhattan in the vicinity of Ground Zero has got me thinking about growing up (partly, at least) Irish Catholic in a heavily Irish and heavily Catholic part of the world. (And by the way, I say “mosque” in quotation marks in the preceding sentence because what we’re talking about isn’t a mosque at all, but “a proposed community center in Lower Manhattan that would be founded by Muslims but serve all New Yorkers.”It just so happens that the community center includes a prayer room, which explains why Sister Sarah’s head nearly exploded.)But, anyway, back to the Irish thing …

As it happens, when I first started frequenting the Madison Street bars in the early 1980s (Madison Street in Forest Park, Illinois, that is – it being the place where just about all the taverns were located in the vicinity of once-dry Oak Park, my home town), the Troubles in Northern Ireland – what the Irish call Ulster – were in full swing.And if you frequented taverns with Irish-sounding names back in the early 1980s in places like Forest Park, or in, say, Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood or in the Southwest suburbs, you were likely to see, as I often did, pro-Irish Republican Army graffiti on the walls of the men’s rooms – nasty things about the personal shaving habits of Queen Elizabeth II, and even nastier things about Margaret Thatcher, Ian Paisely or the UDA – the kind of things that seemed oddly out of place in America in the age of Reagan, darkly threatening and bigoted and ugly; militant in the worst sense of the word.

And what’s funny is, in places like Chicago – and, I’m sure, New York and Boston and any big city with a large Irish Catholic demographic – support for the IRA was not only not uncommon, it was often fairly out in the open.For example, back then my late brother Tom was the lead guitarist in a British Invasion-themed band – you know, four guys in matching white-shirts-with-skinny-ties-and-pointy-shoes type outfits, playing Beatles and Stones and Kinks tunes in front of a huge Union Jack – and, ironically, on at least a couple of occasions they were booked to play private parties that turned out to be NORAID benefits.Maybe the party organizers figured the Union Jack provided cover, or maybe they just didn’t care. But, in any event, according to Tom these were parties with automatic-weapons-toting armed guards at the door, that sort of thing; and at one particular NORAID function, during a break between the band’s sets, the organizers passed around a black coffin-shaped box with an infamous bit of IRA graffiti scrawled on it:

And I don’t think any of that money was declared on anybody’s tax return, if you catch my drift.

In fact, in the late ’70s and early ’80s support for the IRA and its sectarian cause was so wide spread, a young Republican Congressman from New York, Rep. Peter King – yes, that Rep. Peter King – openly embraced the terrorist organization:

[King] forged links with leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein in Ireland, and in America he hooked up with Irish Northern Aid, known as Noraid, a New York based group that the American, British, and Irish governments often accused of funneling guns and money to the IRA. At a time when the IRA’s murder of Lord Mountbatten and its fierce bombing campaign in Britain and Ireland persuaded most American politicians to shun IRA-support groups, Mr. King displayed no such inhibitions. He spoke regularly at Noraid protests and became close to the group’s publicity director, the Bronx lawyer Martin Galvin, a figure reviled by the British.

Mr. King’s support for the IRA was unequivocal. In 1982, for instance, he told a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”

That’s worth repeating: In the early 1980s, Rep. Peter King’s “support for the IRA was unequivocal.”

And lest anybody should forget, the IRA was involved in the business of killing people – innocent civilians, civilian politicians and civilian police officers among them – for the purpose of effecting political change.That’s what we call “terrorism” – using violence against civilian targets to terrorize a civilian population and pressure its political leaders to act in accordance with the terrorists’ wishes.Say what you will about the Irish Republican cause – I, for one, have always supported it – the methods of the IRA were despicable and unacceptable, as were the methods of their Unionist opposition in Ulster.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but more than 3,000 innocents died in Northern Ireland’s Troubles from the early 1960s until the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998.And that’s a number that ought to resonate with Americans today.

3,000 innocent men and women killed in the name of sectarian extremism.That’s pretty close to the number of people killed on September 11, 2001; and while the IRA and their Protestant extremist enemies may have been less efficient at killing than al Qaeda, they proved they could be no less deadly over time. So, you’d think support of the IRA – as I say, once common in the U.S., at least in the big cities – would carry the same sort of stigma as support for Islamic extremism.You’d think that, but if the political success of Rep. Pete King means anything, you’d be wrong.

But I digress. My point is, this whole thing about the proposed Cordoba House in New York City – and the opposition to it from the usual suspects, including Sarah Palin – has got me thinking how some forms of violent sectarian extremism are, apparently, acceptable in the United States and some aren’t.And it’s equally got me thinking how oddly inconsistent we are in terms of how we deal with broader religious communities that include small, usually negligible, groups of extremists within them.Sarah Palin is offended that a Muslim group wants to build a community center in the vicinity of the World Trade Center, where an unrelated group of extremist Muslims killed thousands of innocent people, as if all Muslims are to be held accountable for the actions of the lunatic few. But no one has ever suggested that all Catholics, or all Irish, or all Irish Catholics, should be held accountable for the actions of the IRA and/or their American supporters.

Just imagine if someone were to contact Rep. Peter King and demand that St. Patrick’s Cathedral, located on Madison Avenue in Midtown, be moved out of Manhattan because it somehow represented or symbolized the IRA’s thirty-five year reign of terror.The very idea is absurd; what does a cathedral named for the Patron Saint of Ireland have to do with sectarian violence in Ireland, after all? Nothing, of course, because we don’t do that in America: We don’t blame the actions of a few extremist Catholics or Irishmen on all Catholics or all Irishmen, even though we know that some American Catholics and some Irish Americans in fact supported those extremists.

So, too, with the Cordoba House, it seems to me.You don’t blame the deranged acts of nineteen Saudi Arabian jihadists on the Muslim Americans who want to build a community center in Lower Manhattan, any more than you blame the violent acts of the IRA on the Catholics, Irish or otherwise, who worship at St. Patrick’s or anywhere else.Sarah Palin ought to know that, and she ought to “refudiate” that type of thinking if she really believes in America and in freedom of religion.

She ought to refudiate right-wing Muslim bashing and intolerance, but you know she won’t. Some people never learn ...

Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg responded to my comments about the planned mosque at Ground Zero by suggesting that a decision not to allow the building of a mosque at that sacred place would somehow violate American principles of tolerance and openness.

No one is disputing that America stands for – and should stand for – religious tolerance. It is a foundation of our republic. This is not an issue of religious tolerance but of common moral sense. To build a mosque at Ground Zero is a stab in the heart of the families of the innocent victims of those horrific attacks. Just days after 9/11, the spiritual leader of the organization that wants to build the mosque, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, suggested that blame be placed on the innocents when he stated that the “United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” and that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel, and refuses to provide information about the sources of funding for the $100 million mosque. Rauf also plays a key role in a group behind the flotilla designed to provoke Israel in its justifiable blockade of Gaza. These are just a few of the points Americans are realizing as New York considers the proposed mosque just a stone’s throw away from 9/11’s sacred ground.

I agree with the sister of one of the 9/11 victims (and a New York resident) who said: “This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists. I think that it is incredibly insensitive and audacious really for them to build a mosque, not only on that site, but to do it specifically so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened.”

Many Americans, myself included, feel it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground. This is nothing close to “religious intolerance,” it’s just common decency.

- Sarah Palin

First of all, lets dispel some of the misinformation. Cordoba House is NOT, I repeat NOT "at Ground Zero" as Sarah and her ghostwriter would have you believe. [...]

Now just for a bit of a refresher, lets revisit the 1st Amendment to the Constitution shall we? You know that pesky document that Sarah Palin keeps demanding we stick to when she feels she has another rant coming on?

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Seems to me that Sarah Palin and those opposed to this Community Center are trying to impede the free exercise of religion by demanding that this place not be allowed to go forward, and they are also interfering with the right to peaceably assemble by demanding that this community center be moved to a different location simply because they dislike the specific religious beliefs of those who are going to be using the prayer center. [...]

There is so much involved in this subject that we could go on for days discussing it, but the main thrust of this post is supposed to be about getting the facts out there, and showing the dangerous attitude of the people who are supporting the misinformation that Sarah Palin and those like her are distributing in the name of politics or personal bigotry.

How are people reacting to her facebook note? Good question, and I have some answers. It isn't pretty. Not pretty at all and it shows how she stirs anger and is quite happy to do it as we've seen from the many incidents where she has sought to divide people in this country. [...]

So as is obvious there is a lot of hate, misinformation and dangerous attitudes among Sarah's followers. The anger displayed toward individuals who have a different belief system than they do is plainly evident and exceptionally frightening. To believe that Muslims are all bad, or that this Community center is some kind of dangerous place or disrespectful slap in the face to those who died is a joke, but sadly one that is becoming more and more popular with a select group of citizens.

How sad that this is what so many feel, when they themselves are likely to cry foul if someone tried to trample on their right to free religious expression.

"What better place to teach tolerance than near the site where hate tried to kill it?"

That comment stands out for me.

Sarah Palin could have taken this opportunity and used it to show herself to be a true Christian, and instead she went down the opposite path. She could have shown herself to be supportive of the Constitution like she professes herself to be, but again that is not the path she wanted to take.

I am not surprised by the behavior she displays and encourages in people, but I am saddened by it. I have been paying close attention to her for what feels like an eternity but in reality is has only been a few years. In those few years, I have watched her lash out, encourage rage and anger in her supporters, lie, deliberately misrepresent, and bilk people out of money, and all of it to feed her own ego, and to become a celebutaunt on the national stage.

She is a dangerous person and one who should not be ignored, as she will do everything in her power to continue to encourage dangerous behavior from as many people as she can. That is what she does and it is who she is. Sadly she has conned a lot of good decent people into believing her, but I am always hopeful that people will finally remove the blinders from their eyes and simply look at the facts which show how shallow, egotistical, and narcissistic her behavior is. [...]

If they are going to continue to claim that this "Mosque is being built at Ground Zero", which we have now proven to be two separate and distinct lies, (it is a building that is being renovated & it is not at Ground Zero) then you have to ask yourself, what else are they willing to lie about? The answer to that is ..whatever they want to lie about in order to scare people and use that fear to bring in support both emotional and financial.They certainly aren't going to tell people that this center is housing much more than a prayer room (which is already being used) because that would seem much more reasonable and not so frightening to people who are already leery of those who are "different".

What is so frightening and damaging to the community about restaurants, bookstores, swimming pools, art exhibitions and worship groups? Nothing about those things are frightening at all to reasonable people so that is why they aren't mentioned, and that is why this is being labeled a Mosque instead of a Community Center.

I agree with his conclusion as it was what I was trying to put into word. She is more than just simple-minded, she is willing to take on any cause if she thinks it will keep her in the news, and she doesn't care about what the issue is, nor does she care to understand the issue. For Sarah it has always been about making noise and riling up her supporters in whatever way she can.

There is no doubt that there are people in the world who want to do harm to others and they will always find a reason to do so in their own warped minds, but we should not be playing into their hands and into their deliberately misinformed viewpoints by ensuring that their supporters are seeing us act out in the ways that these terrorists claim we will and do. Sarah Palin and those who blindly follow her are dangerous to this country for the simple reason that they seek to divide us, which weakens us in many different ways, on many different fronts.

We will never completely eradicate terrorism. There will always be those who seek power through intimidation and fear, but we can fight it, and we only lose to them if we allow ourselves to change who we are and what we do out of fear and intimidation.

There is much more. Patrick is very thorough. He has video, photos, quotes I left out. Please go take a look.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Now, I know that Willie Nelson isn’t exactly what Gov. McQuitter would call a Tea Party American, but he is a country music luminary and he’s always been a diehard supporter of farmers in the heartland – you know, Real Americans™, in Sarah parlance.So, maybe, just maybe, Sarah might be interested in what the Red Headed Stranger has to say about the former, and perhaps to soon to be re-instated, USDA employee at the center of Andrew Breitbart’s race-baiting refuse storm. Here’s Willie on HuffPo today:

Shirley Sherrod has been a great friend to me, Farm Aid and family farmers for 25 years. She has always worked to improve economic opportunities for family farmers in the South, going back to when I first met her as the director of the Georgia Field Office for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. Like Ms. Sherrod herself has said, she’s always tried to help those who don't have so that they can have a little more.

The real story of Shirley Sherrod deserved to be told a long time ago. She has had an amazing impact on the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of families and communities throughout the South. Farmers of every race have struggled with the income inequities that have persisted for generations, and advocates like Ms. Sherrod have moved mountains to ensure that families can remain in their homes and on their farms.

Wow. Reading this, you’d almost think Ms. Sherrod is a Real American™, too. Is it possible that there are African Americans who plow the land, just like good old fashioned white folks?Apparently, there are:

While all family farmers in our country face an uphill battle to stay on their land, growing good food for rest of us, black farmers have lost their land at an alarming rate, faster than any other family farmers. Lending discrimination and inequities in agriculture programs are largely responsible for the shrinking number of black farmers. Farm Aid began supporting the Federation in 1985, where Shirley worked at the time, because of the group’s unique ability to reach out and help struggling farm families in the South. Many had owned their land for generations and were, and continue to be, under constant threat. We continue to support the Federation’s work to this day, and hundreds of farmers are still on their land because of Ms. Sherrod's efforts.

…

This country desperately needs more farm advocates with Ms. Sherrod’s expertise. But this is not just about a job – it’s about ensuring that Shirley Sherrod has the opportunity to continue to support family farmers and the rural poor, something she has spent her life doing.

So there you go. There are African Americans suffering in rural areas just like the white farmers – the Spooners – whom Shirley Sherrod didn’t discriminate against 24 years ago.Seems like Shirley Sherrod, the Once And Future USDA Employee, has been helping all sorts of folks in need, regardless of the color of their skin. Or, as they say in Downstate Illinois, disirregardless.

And speaking of Downstate Illinois, I spent the better part of six years down on the prairie in the midst of the corn belt when I was an undergraduate and law student at the University of Illinois, the home of the first Farm Aid Concert which took place in September 1985, at the start of my second year in law school.In fact, I still have friends down there.So the story of Ms. Sherrod’s honest efforts on behalf of hard working rural folks, black and white, strikes a certain chord with me. It reminds me that there are good people everywhere in this country; but it also reminds me that the problems of race permeate urban and rural America alike.And given the good work Shirley Sherrod has done not only to overcome the racial strife she faced growing up, but to come to help family farmers of all walks of life, I don’t think it’s too much to ask of the Half Term Wonder to “refudiate” Andrew Breitbart’s race-bating attack on this fine American.

Now, if you’ll excuse me – and with apologies to my co-bloggers – I feel the need to get my Steve Earle on:

Well Andrew Breitbart and FOX NEWS have succeeded in getting the USDA/Obama administration to force Shirley Sherrod's resignation over comments that many people interpreted as racist, however after further review it would appear that those folks were peddling a heavily edited video, manipulated to make her look bad.

The NAACP has posted the video of Shirley Sherrod's March 27 speech, and it definitively proves false Andrew Breitbart's claim that the edited video he posted at his BigGovernment.com website is "evidence of racism."

In his first post about the video, Breitbart wrote: "In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn't do everything she can for him, because he is white."

Media Matters previously documented that Breitbart's original post suggested that the actions Sherrod described in the video came in her capacity as the USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development during the Obama administration. In fact, the actions she described came 24 years ago, when she when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund -- before she began working for the Agriculture Department.

And in the full video, Sherrod recounts how she ultimately helped the farmer avoid the foreclosure on his farm. Indeed, while Breitbart's video included Sherrod saying that she initially didn't to everything she could, it omitted her explanation that later she went to much greater lengths to help the farmer:

Now that ex-Gov. Sarah Palin, the Patron Saint of Cashing In, imagines herself to be a regular Shakespeare with the English language, maybe she can take a moment to pen a verse “refudiating” the Washington Times latest example of religious intolerance and race-bating.Via ThinkProgress:

Less than a month ago, the Washington Times ran a bizarre op-ed by Frank Gaffney, claiming that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is caught up in a conspiracy with the Muslim Brotherhood and the TARP program to impose oppressive tenants of Islamic Shariah law on America. The highlight of that op-ed was a doctored photo of Kagan in a turban.

The Washington Times’ editors must think that their readers have a very short attention span, because yesterday’s Washington Times also featured an op-ed by Frank Gaffney which touts the same tired conspiracy theory…and features yet another graphic of General Kagan in a turban.

Um, what?

Yeah, that’s right, Elena Kagan – who, for what it’s worth, happens to be Jewish – is part of a secret Islamist cabal hell-bent on transforming the American financial sector into a Caliphate on the Hudson. Or maybe the Charles. Or something.

That is where Elena Kagan’s enabling of the penetration of Shariah into our capital markets through the Harvard Law School’s Islamic Finance Project comes in. The purpose of that project is, according to an excellent essay by Mr. McCarthy, “Elena Kagan’s ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Shariah Policy,” published last week in National Review Online “to promote Shariah compliance in the U.S. financial sector.”

This is accomplished via legal support to an industry known as Shariah-compliant finance (SCF). It was invented in the mid-20th century by Brotherhood operatives as a means of facilitating and underwriting the penetration of Shariah into Western societies by mainlining it into their capitalist bloodstreams. . . .

As a new ad by the Center for Security Policy asks, “If Kagan tolerates promoting the injustice of Shariah law on the campus of Harvard, what kind of injustice will she tolerate in America during a lifetime on the Supreme Court?”

(Emphasis in original ThinkProgress post.)

What kind of injustices, indeed?!Get me my smelling salts.

Of course, as ThinkProgress explains, neither Kagan nor Harvard’s Islamic Finance Project made any effort to promote an “Islamist” agenda here or elsewhere – only to work with Islamic countries and financial institutions to modernize the their financial sector while still respecting the Islamic tradition that forbids charging interest on loans.No burqas, no beheadings, no stonings. Just some creative finance in the Middle East.But, hey, who cares about the facts when you can tie a liberal Jewish Supreme Court nominee to every right-winger’s favorite monster-in-the-closet: Shariah law!

So, ex-Gov. Palin, what do you think? You’re all about the religious freedom and the worship-y thing and the gettin’ down on yer knees and thankin’ the Good Lord the Framers read their Bibles and loved Baby Jesus and Israel and such.So, do you think it’s okay to insinuate –without, as those pesky lawyers say, a shred of evidence – that Elena Kagan is some sort of covert agent who, despite her Jewish faith, is secretly working to convert America to Islam? Or would you refudiate that sort of dog-whistle smear campaign?

Just askin’! Also.

UPDATE:I wonder if the ex-Gov. can answer this question: Why do you suppose the Washington Times chose to picture Elena Kaga in a turban? After all, if she’s a Shariah-lovin’ woman, shouldn’t she be wearing a burqa? I mean, a turban’s what a man would wear, right? Waitaminute! You don’t think the Washington Times is trying to say something about Kagan’s sexuality, do you? C’mon, Sarah. You’ve got a lot of refudiatin’ to do.

Sarah Palin supports this law, but if she cares at all about human rights and tolerance she would "refudiate" the draconian immigration law in Arizona which is having a negative impact on everyone. Refudiate this Sarah!

From ABC NEWS:Hating Hispanics: Has Arizona Ignited Firestorm After Decade of Simmering Tension?Activists Say Immigation Law Has Given Rest of Country Free License to Discriminate Against Hispanics

By SARAH NETTERJuly 19, 2010

Jumped by three men wielding chains and bats, Adolfo pleaded with his attackers to consider his family.

Hating Hispanics: Has Arizona Ignited Firestorm After Decade of Simmering Tension?Activists say Arizona's controversial immigration law has given the rest of country free license to discriminate against Hispanics.

It was an attack, he said, that changed everything about his life in America.

"I always felt safe in this country," he said in Spanish. "I feel very alone now."

Adolfo, whose last name is being withheld by ABC News.com at his request, is not alone.

The country's changing demographics and ongoing struggle with immigration policy have stirred anti-Hispanic sentiment, said activists who reported anecdotal evidence that Arizona's controversial immigration law has contributed to a fresh round of discrimination.-snip-

So, it’s been quite a weekend for those whom Sister Sarah likes to call “Tea Party Americans.”Shortly after the half-term ex-governor asked President Obama to “refudiate” the NAACP for its resolution condemning racist elements in the Tea Party, the Tea Party was, uh, forced to expel Tea Party Express Leader Mark Williams for posting a racist, supposedly satirical “letter” to Abraham Lincoln on behalf of “Colored People.”Nothing says “refudiation” like proving the NAACP right, I suppose.

A 45-year-old parolee, described by his mother as angry at left-wing politicians, opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers on an Oakland freeway early Sunday and was hit by return fire while wearing body armor, authorities said.

Byron Williams of Groveland (Tuolumne County) was taken to the emergency room at Highland Hospital, where he was in stable condition. Police did not describe his injuries. Two officers suffered minor cuts from flying glass.

Here’s hoping that Ms. Palin finds it in her heart to “refudiate” crazy right wingers who shoot at cops.

While her tweet about how she wants Muslims to "refudiate" the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero is getting attention we should remind you guys that both Windy City Watch and The Political Carnival first caught her using her made up word last week during an interview with FOX NEWS' Sean Hannity, when she also referred to President Obama as "half white or half Black."

Fox News has hyped phony New Black Panthers scandal at least 95 timesFox devoted more than 8 hours of airtime to discussion of New Black PanthersJuly 16, 2010 5:26 pm ET — 50 CommentsSix Fox News shows have discussed the phony New Black Panthers scandal during a total of 95 segments since Megyn Kelly's June 30 interview hyping the unsubstantiated allegations of right-wing activist J. Christian Adams. In all, these Fox shows have devoted more than eight hours of airtime to discussing the New Black Panthers.-snip-

Let's not forget this gem of journalistic malfeasance from Megyn Kelly: